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Sink the Montana!
The commander of a powerful US Navy battleship, embittered by his impending forced retirement, defects to COBRA, taking his command with him and posing a serious threat to the entire US fleet. When modern weapons prove useless, thanks to one of Destro's inventions, GI Joe commandeers the USS Constitution, the oldest Navy ship in service, to stop her. Detailed summary ACT 1: The episode opens with the Joes and numerous high-ranking military personnel assembled for a celebration at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. As a Navy band plays a fanfare, a cameo news report from Hector Ramirez explains that "After three wars and 45 years of active sea duty, the USS Montana, largest battleship in the world, returns home to Philadelphia Naval Yard, for decommissioning and the scrap heap." Up in the grand stands, General Hawk, peering through a set of binoculars, remarks sadly to Admiral Overton beside him, "So passes an era, Overton. We'll never see the likes of the Montana again...don't know if I like that." Overton merely snorts and replies that there's nothing to like about it, because the Montana is "old and out-moded". He pauses briefly, then with a slight tinge of bitterness in voice, adds that her captain is too. Ramirez's narration continues: "But despite her final fate, today is a day of honor and recognition for this heroic ship!" The scene then cuts to Shipwreck, who is sitting on the deck of a W.H.A.L.E hovercraft in the harbor, along with several other Joes. Being a dedicated man of the sea, he's anything but happy to see the Montana go and disgustedly comments, "Eh...they're nuts to scrap her! She's got the lines of a lady and the punch of a dock fighter!" prompting Polly to humorously quip, "But can she cook?" and fly off. To which Shipwreck irritably replies, "COOK?! How about stuffed parrot, you...?! Hey! Come back here, featherbrain!". He chases after his pet, only to slip and fall over overboard, just as the Montana comes in to dock. "And here she is, folks! The USS Montana!" Ramirez announces. "The greatest fighting ship to ever sail the high seas!" The gangplank is lowered and the battleship's crew disembarks, amid the thunderous applause of the assembled crowd, all except for her commader, who stands alone on the bridge with his hands behind his back, staring absently out the windows towards the bow, deep in thought. He is soon joined by Hawk and Overton, the latter of whom greets him, saying "Welcome! Welcome home, Admiral Lattimer!" Lattimer turns and, with a grim expression on his face, responds icily, "Have the harpies of the shore come to pluck the eagle of the sea?" Overton is offended and snaps back, "Don't wax poetic with me, Lattimer!" Hawk, however, is more sympathetic and soothingly tells Lattimer that they're not there to celebrate the end of his career, but that they're honoring both him and his ship. Lattimer only points angrily at the assembled crowd on the dock below and snarls, "If you think that circus out there is some kind of honor, then you're no friend of mine and never have been!" Outside, just as Shipwreck is helped back aboard the W.H.A.L.E. by Wet-Suit and Deep Six, the Navy yard suddenly comes under attack by a squardon of Cobra Firebats. Onboard the Montana, Overton jumps to the conclusion that Cobra is trying to wipe-out the Navy's fleet officers, but Hawk quickly points out that this couldn't be the case, since the Firebats are not shooting at the grand stands. The scene then cuts to a Cobra Moray assault hydrofoil, which has just entered the Navy yard. Inside the Moray's cabin, Destro orders the pilot to close-in on the Montana, while underwater, a large force of Cobra's Battle Android Troopers (B.A.T.s) also heads for the battleship, walking along the bottom. Without warning they suddenly swarm over the docks and aboard the Montana itself, quickly overwhelming both the defending Joes and the Naval Shore Patrol officers with their sheer numbers. On the Montana' 's forward deck, Overton attempts to fight them off with his sidearm, but to no avail. Hawk, pointing out the futility of Overton taking on such a large force with a "peashooter" (as he puts it), climbs onto one of the battleship's anti-aircraft laser cannons and starts mowing the invading B.A.T.s down, but it soon proves to be an equally futile effort. The robotic soldiers just keep coming in ever-greater numbers, quickly overrunning his position and putting the cannon out of commission. Hawk is forced to retreat and heads for the ''Montana 's bridge, while several B.A.T.s capture Overton and unceremoniously toss him over the side into the water. On the bridge, Hawk finds who he assumes to be Lattimer, seated in the captain's chair with his back to him and yells at him to get up and join the fight. However, the seated figure merely laughs and swivels around, revealing himself to be Destro. Smirking, he asks mockingly, "On which side?" Quickly getting over his initial surprise at seeing Destro there, Hawk angrily pull his sidearm out and demands to know what he has done with Admiral Lattimer. To his shock, however, Lattimer suddenly steps into view from behind him and points his own sidearm at Hawk, saying "Anything is better than retirement, Hawk. Even if I have to serve Cobra!" Horrified at the realization that Lattimer himself is behind the Cobra attack on his ship, Hawk implores him to reconsider, saying, "George! You can't betray your country...your friends!" Lattimer hesitates for a moment and we are shown a hazy, black&white memory sequence in which the Montana is under heavy fire (presumably during WWII or Korea) and taking severe damage. On deck, a frightened sailor screams that they're all going to die, while a younger Lattimer confidently assures him that the Montana will pull them through. The memory sequence fades and back in the present day, Lattimer says firmly, "Hawk, I've only got one friend: the Montana! And I'm not letting them cut her up!" Before Hawk can respond, however, a squad of B.A.T.s bursts through the door to the bridge and on Destro's orders, immediately attack him. A struggle ensues, resulting in the captain's chair being broken-off its mount and one of the forward bridge windows shattered, through which Hawk immediately jumps. Destro confidently says that he won't escape, because the B.A.T.s have completely taken over the ship, to which Lattimer responds, after another moment's hesitation, "Then let's get underway!" Going to the ship's helm controls, he orders "all ahead slow". The B.A.T.s down in the engine room respond to the orders and the mighty battleship eases forward, its powerful engines snapping the mooring lines securing it to the dock. Peering down onto the deck, Lattimer is horrified to see that Hawk is surrounded by B.A.T.s on all sides and in very real danger of being killed. Destro, sensing Lattimer's hesitation, tells him to choose now, saying that he can either save his friend or he can save his ship. We are shown another black&white memory sequence, in which a younger Lattimer is flying an out of control helicopter (which strongly resembles the real-life Hiller OH-23; placing this event sometime in the 1950's) in a storm at sea. Unable to maintain control, he just has time to send a distress call to the Montana before he crashes in the water. He surfaces, but has no life jacket and is barely able to stay afloat in the storm-tossed seas. Crying for help, he is saved just in the nick of time by the sudden arrival of his beloved ship. Back in the present, the memory of the crash and his rescue by the Montana seems to decide things for Lattimer and he orders "all ahead full" on the engines. Destro commends his decision, patting him on the shoulder and telling him "Wise decision, Admiral Lattimer." Down on the deck, the B.A.T.s are closing in for the kill and Hawk defiantly challenges them, saying "Alright, let's get this over with!" as he blasts them repeatedly with his sidearm. The shots do little to stop them, however, and just like Admiral Overton, he is soon captured and thrown over the side. As the Montana picks up speed, Hawk is pulled under and comes close to being sucked into the battleship's massive propellor in the process. He just manages to avoid drowning and gasping for breath, is pulled aboard the W.H.A.L.E. by Shipwreck, Deep Six and Wet-Suit. Aboard the Montana, the B.A.T.s shoot the American flag off the ship's mast, setting it afire in the process and then raise a white and red Cobra ensign in its place. Seeing this, Lattimer remarks with some regret, "Well...I guess this is it. No turning back." Destro asks him if he was thinking of reneging on his promise, but Lattimer quickly replies, "No! The Montana and I serve Cobra now...one-hundred percent!" Desto then demands a demonstration of his loyalty to Cobra and Lattimer orders all four of the battleship's turrets loaded. He then opens fire on a line of decommissioned warships waiting to be scrapped and destroys several other battleships and obsolete aircraft carriers, saying bitterly "I'll show the Navy what they can do with their mothball fleet!" Horrified, Hawk shouts and waves him arms in a futile effort to make his friend cease fire. This surprises Wet-Suit, who tells him "Easy, sir. They're only mothball scrap." Hawk glares and quickly snaps "That's not the point, Wet-Suit!" Satisfied with the demonstration, Destro announces that the ''Montanas ''next stop will be the Navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia. Lattimer immediately recognizes this as the headquarters of the 7th Fleet, to which Destro replies, "Precisely. Sink that fleet, and the ''Montana will rule the Atlantic!" Featured Characters Featured Vehicles & Equipment Notable quotes Other notes Animation and/or technical glitches * During the final battle between the Atlantic Fleet and the USS Montana, Admiral Lattimer's uniform and hat inexplicably changes from the uniform Destro had given him earlier to his old US Navy uniform. The COBRA uniform returns during the same scene. Continuity errors * Real-world references * The USS Montana in this episode refers to the Montana-class Battleship that was scheduled to be built during World War II. Admiral Lattimer's Montana shares the same 4-turret, 12-gun design of the US Navy version. Following the events of the Battle of Midway, however, the five Montana-class ships scheduled for construction were quickly disbanded before any actual construction took place. * The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship in service of the US Navy. Although it is primarily a museum and special events ship, she is staff entirely by a qualified US Navy compliment of officers and seamen. Miscellaneous trivia * References Category:Sunbow episodes